Bláithín Haddad: 'where vilest worms do dwell' 
January 16 - March 15, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, January 16, 6-9pm
 

Join us on Friday, January 16, for the opening of an exhibition of works by Providence-based artist Bláithín Haddad.

‘Where vilest worms do dwell’ explores the biological relationship of parasitism that plays out in the cultural phenomenon of colonisation. Specifically, this show seeks to expound on how colonisers impose and disrupt societal and economic norms that make the land untenable. The use of materials that hold memory, including light, paper, and glass, break down and deteriorate throughout this visual work. Glass, an inherently seductive material, acts as a thin membrane that provides the optical illusion of increased access, despite remaining impenetrable. Similarly, the barrier formed by the commixture of organic pulp and metal wire provides a lattice framework that both provides and restricts form. 

By means of alchemy, these materials are then put back together in a different arrangement, resulting in a permanently altered fundamental composition. Through this show, viewers are asked to balance the juxtaposition of visual aesthetics with the abstraction of colonialism’s implications for disrupting the fundamental balance of nature.

About the artist:

Bláithín Haddad is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily in print media, sculpture and installation informed by her experience as a first generation American, with Irish and Jamaican parents, and growing up in West Texas. She is an educator at the Rhode Island School of Design, and has exhibited both nationally and internationally, including San Francisco, Texas, Massachusetts, and Ireland. Haddad earned her MFA from RISD in printmaking.